Beautiful, Snowy, Las Vegas

So for the few weeks Jace has been asking me if we were going to get snow for Christmas. My constant reply has been, "No, honey. It just doesn't snow here in Las Vegas. Maybe we'll go up and visit Nana in the snow after Christmas." BOY WAS I WRONG! Monday Andrew called and told me to have the boys look outside so we did, in true Vegas fashion, flip flops,

and it was snowing at our house! Jace stood at the door for a few moments in amazement then looked at me and quite matter of factly said, "You were wrong Mama." To which I said, "I sure was." Then it snowed again yesterday (Wednesday). Since it didn't stick at our house we went up to red rock yesterday and the boys and Andrew built a mini desert snowman. They used rocks for eyes and yucca plant leaves for arms. Anyway, the boys have been so cute about all our crazy weather.

Opportunity Village

On December 6th we went to the Magical Forrest. It was fun. It was more fun for the kids, having a new baby and it being so cold, I didn't go on the train:( I Like the train okay! It was still fun, because the boys were able to have both of their Grandma's there. They were in town for Steele's blessing. Here are some pictures of the kids with Santa, on the train, in the little fire house, Steele slept the whole time(I woke him up to take a pic with Santa then he went right back to sleep) and the darling crying baby with all the hair is my niece, Effie. She was fine when all the kids were on Santa's lap with her but once she was alone, forget about it! So cute!

Thanksgiving

We had Thanksgiving in Ely this year at my parents new house. It was fun! We'll go to Cali for Christmas to my in-laws new house (well practically new, the skeleton of the house is still original, but the rest is almost completely remodeled. I'll post some pics after Christmas.) My grandparents came and they are always fun to be around especially Gram. The boys just love them too, I'm so glad that they just adore all of their great grand parents. Steele got some one on one time with them too. Here's just a few from dinner (My Dad and brothers can never take a serious picture-hence, the nose picking and wierd faces) and Papa and Nana B with Steele.

Briefly what we've been up to.

After Steele was born we took some time off. The boys loved getting to know Steele. Then Halloween came so we went to Gilcrease orchard to pick a few small pumpkins and get some yummy apple juice.

Actual Halloween pictures were taken with my 35 mm so I won't post right now but the boys were darn cute super heroes. Jesse wanted to be Spiderman. Jace wanted to be Batman, so naturally Steele was Superman and was stinkin' cute.

In November the boys went to Anderson Dairy on a field trip for pre-school. It was fun and they gave out icecream at the end.

I can't remember exactly but back in October my parents bought a new house. Well not brand new but new to them and considerably newer than the house they were in. It 's so great! There's tons of room for everyone in the house and tons of room for the kids to play outside as well. The house backs up against the hillside so they really don't have any neighbors and can go hiking right outside the back door, and there is a creek just across the street. Sooo awesome. Here's the new address.

Here's a view of the house and the shop.

Here's my Mom taking the boys to go check the mail in the rain.

This is a great playground in the backyard.

Steele at about 2 months.

Andrew finished the boys new surfer bedroom. It's so cute. This surf shack is a queen bunk bed! We were able to babysit Jacob, the boys cousin, one night. He's mobile so he's so fun! The boys just love him.

Steele is 3 months old already!

Steele is so much fun! He is the easiest baby, or maybe I think that because I had twins first? Either way he is the cutest, most fun, and so easy. Like my friend said that her friend said, I could do hundred babies one at a time (I wouldn't ever in a million years be pregnant 100 times or even 10 times for that matter) but it is great having only one baby. I will admit, even until the day he was born I was hoping for twins, they're so much fun when they are newborns. I took these on the 11th which was his 3 month birthday.

Jesse and Jace are such good big brothers and are so helpful. They loooove Steele, sometimes a little too much. I always have to nicely remind them that they need to get out Steele's grill. But they do love him so much.

Meet Steele Jennings Meeks!

So after some computer problems our summer pictures are still being held hostage on the other computer but Steele is here and we are all doing great. After 2 rounds of mastitis I'm feeling much better. So the stats on poor skinny are:
Born- September 11, 2008
Time- 7:43 p.m.
Weight-10lbs 3 oz (that's right)
Length-21 1/2 in. long
OUCH! you say? Actually it was surprisingly easy! A couple of pushes and only 1 stitch. So we were home by 9:00 the next night. He's so good. He sleeps well and even through all the noise of 4 year olds and their dinosaur fights, and regular fights and the boys are so good with him and very attentive. They are so willing to help, it's great! One is definitely easier than two, I've even gone shopping BY MYSELF, with all of them. It wasn't bad, could've been worse. It feels like he's been part of us forever already! I'll have a giant post later when I get into my other computer. I'll have more pictures of him later too. Not sure about this computer.

May and my babies!

A couple of pictures taken for their Pirate themed Birthday party.

In May we had so much fun! On the 15th was the boys birthday. They turned 4. I know that with all the mile markers you start realizing how fast time really does fly. But, I really can't believe it's been 4 years. On the day of their birthday we always fill their rooms with balloons, so we did that and then they got to open up presents. Andrew got them each a big bag of Cheetos(totally not my idea). Then Andrew said they could eat and pretty much do whatever they wanted because it was their birthday. Soooo they had Cheetos for breakfast while they sat on the couch in their new car seats(again, not my idea- you know what their hands look like after eating Cheetos right!) Later we had some friends over to play on the new sprinkler they got.
Then that night they wanted to go to the Las Vegas Mini Grand Prix and ride the dragon roller coaster. It was fun we raced cars(I won), rode the little roller coaster, and boys even drove little cars by themselves. I was so funny to see them drive around in cars, alone. The whole day was fun.

Jace with some buddies, Adam and Savannah and little Jake.

Brothers Jace getting ready to drive.

Sorry, this is kind of a long clip.

The Boys Graduated
For those of you who didn't know, four other Moms and myself did a little co-op pre-school thing. It was every Tuesday and well, it's over. I'm pretty sure I won't do that again but the kids had fun. On May 14th we did a very informal grad ceremony (basically we put hats on them, gave them a certificate, and sat them on the couch for pictures). That was all we could get out of them because they wanted to swim.

The BIG Surprise!

Tio, (my brother Charley) and Aunt Sarah and new cousin Jacob, took the boys to the Shark Reef for their Birthday present. They had a lot of fun and still talk about some of the animals at "the surprise" not the Shark Reef.
The Pirate Party

We always have a huge birthday party for the boys. All of our family and close friends come. I'll probably do it until the boys don't want to anymore because I love to get everyone together. This was the first year the boys chose what kind of party they wanted. After some deliberation we settled on pirates. It was such a fun party. We had it on the 24th so more family could come, but it was hard explaining to the boys that their party wasn't for another week and a half after their birthday day. The weather held out( it was supposed to rain), the kids had a blast and well the cake broke in half. Here's the before of the cake. This is what it looked like before it actually broke in half.

AFTER

The pirate shi* cake just broke in half, but I handled it well. Andrew made the big pirate ships and the kids and their Dads had a cannon ball fight.

We also had a treasure hunt for the kids. My sister, Alex, drew a map and Andrew buried the treasure chest(a little deep, and really packed in.) Then they followed the map and dug up the treasure chest of loot bags(My Mom helped sew up the bags the night before).

Thanks everyone for coming it was so much fun!